By Dawn Bryant, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
May 1--A religious-themed show from Fort Mill will move into the troubled Crook & Chase Theater in June, and the show's owners hope to buy the theater if the summer is successful.
'Twenty Years Ago,' a production of nonprofit group NarroWay, will start June 3, opening the theater's closed doors at Fantasy Harbour for the first time since a special holiday show.
Carolina Capital Investment Corp. of Columbia has foreclosed on the Crook & Chase Theater's $3.2 million mortgage. The 1,900-seat theater opened in 1999 and has been the home of the nationally televised 'Crook & Chase Show' and a local production of the musical 'Summer of '66.' The availability of the theater combined with Myrtle Beach's repu tation as a vacation destination led the nonprofit to this area, said NarroWay general manager Michael Kimble.
'It was something that we couldn't resist,' he said. 'The three months are going to be a very good test for what can happen long term.' NarroWay Productions, which is starting its sixth season in Fort Mill, will bring a new mix of drama, music and a religious message to the lineup of show offerings on the Grand Strand.
The family show is based on the 20-year class reunion for 1973 gradu ates, tracking the group from kindergarten to 1993 as they prepare for the event.
'It's a good, clean show with a good, clean message,' Kimble said. Leg 1
The expansion to Myrtle Beach marks NarroWay's first venture out of Fort Mill, where it has a 3,000-seat outdoor arena and a 500-seat dinner theater. The 325 cast members for NarroWay's several shows are volunteers.
The addition is the latest lineup change at Fantasy Harbour, a strug gling area once envisioned as a hub of a dozen theaters. Since the first theater opened about seven years ago, more than a half-dozen celeb rities and shows have taken the stages at five locations there.
Crook & Chase's neighbors at Fantasy Harbour said they welcome the summer action, which they hope will bring more exposure to the area.
'From what I've seen, it looks like a decent show,' said David Lindsey, marketing manager for Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, one of the Grand Strand's more successful shows. 'Like everything else that comes in, we will just have to wait and see.' Fantasy Harbour's tarnished reputation concerns Kimble, but he is optimistic for success.
'We are not fly-by-night,' he said.
'We come in with the intention to do it right and do it good.' During 1999, NarroWay's revenues were $240,895 while expenses ran at $192,111, according to the nonprofit's most recent IRS filings. The company received nearly $86,500 in contributions that year.
The show, popular with traveling church groups, is catching on in the Fort Mill area with its uniqueness and religious message, said Bennish Brown, executive director of the York County Tourism and Sports Commission. NarroWay is a member of the commission's 'Part ners in Tourism' group.
'They are certainly a major part of the products we promote here,' Brown said. 'It is becoming more and more recognized.'
To see more of The Sun News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.MyrtleBeachOnline.com
(c) 2002, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
